Behold: Your Quarantimes Binge Read

“In these trying times” (said with solemn radio announcer voice) it is hard to focus on anything and reading has been a bit of an uphill climb for me. I want something that’s a bit of a distraction, something I can sink my teeth into. There is one unread Tana French book that I currently own and I’ve been saving it because she is THE BEST but then, once I read it, I have no more waiting in the reads (sob). My husband suggested I go back and read them all again and I figured that was just the ticket. My memory can have goldfish tendencies and French weaves such fun continuity in this series, so knocking them out in a row seemed like fun, and so far I’ve been right.

I’m going to share my first review again (italics) and then tack on some more bits at the end.

This was my second book given to me this year for the Pajiba Cannonball Read Book Exchange. My benefactor picked two in my “to read” list off of Goodreads, and gave this one a glowing recommendation, and they were not wrong!!

This was a real page turner, I was obsessed with seeing how it all played out! Missing children, murder, detective partners with secret histories, the wood with its own secrets of present and past. At its roots the story isn’t that complex, and I wanted a bit more from the ending, but French is a talented writer and uses language so artfully that her writing rose above a standard plot. The book begins with an interesting narrator reveal, and the narrator drops hints throughout the book about how it will all play out in the end that are maddening and delicious. (Also, the cherry on top for me was the setting of Ireland. I have a good friend from there, so I just get tickled with the use of slang).

I recommend this book to anyone who likes a good mystery especially those like myself who used to have an affinity (obsession) with Law and Order.

THANK YOU CBR BENEFACTOR FOR GIVING ME THIS BOOK. Trying to figure out what I mean about “more from the ending” it’s probably that French rarely wraps things up in a bow, and that can live you feeling a little jilted, but I take it back. This book is grand and held up to a reread and I’m enjoying this stroll down memory lane.